A debut album is the first released record album by an artist or a band. Debuts often have a deeper meaning than subsequent albums. Many popular bands are the product of practice and lots of practice tracks which condense the "roughness" and "eagerness" of a newly formed group. Often, the band's initial style remains unsurpassed in later productions.

The debut albums of such basic examples as the Rolling Stones and The Beatles showcase unique energy not found on their later productions, even if they instead showed more style, finesse and professionalism.

Elvis Costello produced The Pogues' debut album in a rough and amateurish way, because "I saw my task... was to capture them in their dilapidated glory before some more professional producer fucked them up".